Last closure
On Wednesday, February 25, trades in USA have come to the end with mixed dynamics. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s second-day testimony before Congress propped up markets up in early trade, but gains faded out by the closing bell. Yellen answered questions from members of Congress for the second day and continued to stress that normalization of interest rates will begin when the Federal Open Market Committee is confident that inflation is on track to hit the central bank’s inflation target of 2% growth. The Commerce Department says new home sales slipped 0.2% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000. This marks a slight decrease from sales of 482,000 homes in December, but represents a solid 5.3% gain from a year ago when harsh winter weather caused home-buying to stall. On the day’s result, index Dow Jones rose by 0.08%, S&P has lowered by 0.08%, Nasdaq has decreased by 0.02%.
European stock exchanges closed with mixed dynamics of main indexes. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi defended the ECB against criticism that it acted in a heavy- handed way toward Greece during the country's bailout negotiations with creditors, saying the central bank was simply applying its lending rules. On the day’s result, British FTSE has declined by 0.21%, CAC 40 (France) has decreased by 0.09%, DAX (Germany) has increased by 0.04%.
March contractual price on Brent oil, grew by $2.97 to $61.63 per barrel.
In Ukraine
Trades on the Ukrainian stock exchange opened by growth, day passed with positive dynamics. Value of the UX index has increased by 1.26% to 1117.04. Share trades capacity on the application market was equal to UAH 5.8 million. Trades capacity on the derivatives market was equal to UAH 16.3 million. Total trades capacity for yesterday — UAH 48.7 million.
From ten shares of an index basket, nine have risen. Leaders of growth were shares of Ukrnafta (+5.08%) and Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant (+4.96%). Worse than market looked shares of Donbasenergo (-0.17%).
A meeting of the International Monetary Fund board of directors to discuss the issue of new credit for Ukraine has been scheduled for March 11, Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko has said. The National Bank of Ukraine, due to the fall in the value of the national currency, has imposed new administrative restrictions, including banning authorized banks from buying foreign currency under requests made by clients (including under requests submitted before February 25) until February 27.
Premarket
External background at the opening is neutral. The national Bank of Ukraine has decided to cancel its own ban banks to purchase for buyers of currency on the interbank currency market. The Asian indexes are growing today. Nikkei rose by 1.08%, Hong Kong Hang Seng increasing by 0.37%.
Futures on American indexes are slightly growing today from 0.08% to 0.12%.
Russian indexes as of 9:51 EET are rising — MICEX increasing by 0.48%, RTS growing by 2.98%.
Our expectations
We expect opening of the Ukrainian market on neutral territory.
In Europe will be published German unemployment change (10:55 EET) and data on GDP in the U.K. (11:30 EET).
In the U.S. will be published initial CPI (15:30 EET), durable goods orders (15:30 EET) and data initial jobless claims (15:30 EET).
ITT Investment group
